Extra Points: Eagles' Clay named to Shrine Bowl

For the fifth time in the last seven seasons, an Eastern Alamance football player is on the North Carolina Shrine Bowl team.

Senior Aaron Clay was honored with a roster spot on the team as a running back / receiver for the Dec. 15 game at Gibbs Stadium on the Wofford College campus in Spartanburg, S.C.

“We’re excited about that,” Eagles coach John Kirby said. “I saw Williams had all those kids, they honored them last week. We’ve had some success here.”

Clay hasn’t exactly racked up as gaudy numbers this season as he piled up last season, with 24 receptions for 278 yards and 11 carries for 103 yards and eight total touchdowns, including a 76-yard punt return for touchdown.

But that has had little to do with Clay, and instead shows more about the weapons around him, according to Kirby.

“Aaron is drawing a lot of attention,” Kirby said. “He had a great junior year, and with that, it has caused him to get a lot more attention.

“Our offense, we feel like we have a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things. We think, pound for pound, we have some of the best weapons we’ve had here.”

-- SURGING EAGLES: One of Clay’s Eastern Alamance teammates had a big night during a 41-6 victory against Eden Morehead last week.

Senior running back Josh Jurgevich needed only six carries to rack up 129 rushing yards and a touchdown, added a 40-yard receiving touchdown and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a third score. All three touchdowns came in the first half.

-- FOR THE RECORD: With four touchdown passes against Eden Morehead, Eastern Alamance senior quarterback Josh Long surpassed the school record for touchdown passes in a season with 23.

After being held to seven points in a loss to Northern Guilford, Long has led Eastern Alamance to a combined 75 points in the last two games, both victories.

“I think our offense has always been there,” Kirby said. “We’ve played well the last couple weeks. In the Northern (Guilford) game, it was like we never could get any rhythm. Last couple weeks, we have gotten into rhythm.”

-- BULLDOGS ON THE MEND: Williams High School quarterback Christian Miles, who left in the second quarter of Friday night’s game with Western Alamance with what appeared to be a serious leg injury, has been back to practice this week.

Coach David Green said Wednesday night that Miles sustained “some kind of bruise” but it wasn’t as severe of an injury as initial projections.

“That’s what I was thinking Friday, too,” Green said of a potential dire situation. “He’s good. He’s practicing.”

After the game, Western Alamance quarterback Nigel Carlton was among those concerned about Miles and trying to find out more about his injury. Not because he’s a fellow quarterback, but he said because they attend the same church.

Meanwhile, Williams receiver A.J. Fields, who was limited in the Western Alamance game with an ankle injury, might have aggravated the injury, but Green said he’s expected to play Friday night at Eden Morehead.

The Bulldogs have lost three of their last four games.

“We’ve got to get everybody healthy and cut out the turnovers and get things back where we need to be,” Green said. “Hopefully, we can get to that these next few games.”

-- GET OUT OF THE WAY: Carlton ran for two touchdowns in the game at Williams. He said he was most concerned on the second one, a 15-yarder, that he would be derailed by one of his own players.

That’s because he said he had to dodge fullback Alex Ball on the way to the end zone.

-- NOT THIS TIME: It’s no wonder that Western Alamance defensive lineman Sydney Younger said, “We really wanted a shutout” after last week’s 27-7 victory at Williams.

The Warriors haven’t posted a shutout since a 2010 game at Eden Morehead. That’s 28 games without a blanking.

Williams scored in the fourth quarter to dismiss Western Alamance’s shutout bid.

-- BIG-TIME PERFORMANCE: While Eastern Randolph senior Paris’ Martin might have stolen the show with four touchdowns in Friday night’s 33-28 victory against Cummings High School, there was one key element to that effort that was essential to the victory.

“I think our offensive line played the best game they had all year,” Wildcats coach Seth Baxter said.

That was especially impressive for Baxter considering that Eastern Randolph had scored one offensive touchdown in its last two games before matching up against the Cavaliers.

“Offensively, the last couple weeks, we haven’t finished drives and we haven’t moved the ball,” Baxter said. “There were a lot of things we hadn’t done. But (the offensive line) continued to work hard.”

-- IRON LINEMAN: Cummings junior Will Richardson had to catch his breath after Friday night’s game, with good reason.

The lineman played every snap — lining up as an offensive tackle and defensive end — against Eastern Randolph.

“Except for kickoff and kick return, I was on every single play,” Richardson said.

-- STANDOUT CAVALIER: Cummings was on the short end of its game against Eastern Randolph, but Dedric Bowman did all he could to put the Cavaliers on the other end of the decision. Bowman had seven catches for 171 yards, including a 57-yard touchdown catch with 5:25 left to put Cummings within one touchdown.

“Dedric wanted to win this game,” Cummings coach Steve Johnson said. “A couple weeks ago, we started playing him offensively and defensively. He has stepped up his game, and he showed (Friday night) he’s a scholarship-type player.”